Speaking Monday night, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the lieutenant commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), said Iran is now so powerful that the US secretary asks it to end its presence in the region.
“This means we cannot [push Iran out] and the country itself should end its presence,” he said, according to a report by IRNA.
“Enemies cannot do anything but to impose sanctions,” Salami said, adding that Iran is wealthy country that cannot be isolated.
Iran’s adversaries have spared no chance since the 1979 Islamic Revolution to curb Iran’s influence in the region.
In a follow up to the early March withdrawal of the US from the nuclear deal, Pompeo last week threatened to impose the “strongest sanctions in history” against Iran that would ultimately destroy Iran’s economy unless it capitulated to a series of 12 “basic requirements”.
The list asks Tehran to halt its missile development, stop what the US believes are Iran’s interventions in the affairs of Iraq, Syria and Yemen and cease support for groups which the US considers terrorist but Iran sees as legitimate resistance forces.
